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Thursday, June 16, 2016

Big Brother Teams up With Fast Food in the Surveillance State

Big Brother is watching you and he wants you to believe that if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear from the surveillance state.

This is a lie, of course. As we move deeper into the era of state-sponsored and corporate technological surveillance, we see the resulting evidence of individuals’ loss of privacy and a transformation to a more compliant and self-policing society.

A new effort by Domino’s Pizza Enterprises to start tracking their customers via satellite is a perfect example of just how eager corporations are to participate in the surveillance state. These efforts are always justified, using reasons such as improved customer service or ability to deliver a higher quality product. But the reality is that now Domino’s is going to start tracking their customers’ every move between the time they place their order to the time they pick it up, and thus collecting data on their personal life habits. Bloomberg reports:

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd., Australia’s largest pizza company, will on Monday start using satellites to follow customers as they approach stores to pick up orders. By tracking pizza-lovers on the street, Domino’s can wait until the last moment to start cooking and ensure orders stay fresh, the company said Thursday.

From next week, customers in Australia who use smartphones to order pick-up pizzas can choose to be followed by Domino’s tracking system. They can also specify whether they’re coming on foot, on bike or by car. Cooking starts when the map shows customers are within range, the company said.

True Effect of the Surveillance State

The idea for Domino’s is to have the pizza ready for the customer at the very last possible moment, so it is as fresh as it could possibly be. For some, I’m sure it sounds like a great service.

The reality, though, that this type of surveillance is conditioning people into a mindset that it is perfectly acceptable for a corporation or third-party entity to track their every move. It is getting them accustomed to living in a surveillance state, where governments and corporations are always watching.

If Domino’s has the ability to track your every move after you’ve placed a pick up order, what’s there to stop them from watching you at other times. Although this is, of course, against company policy, we all know that surveillance technologies aren’t always used honestly or for the sole purpose for which they are initially deployed. (Just consider the unlawful surveillance of the American people by the NSA and CIA, as revealed by Edward Snowden.)